Thundersdawn PT9 Breech Of Dawn
by Chaos Eternus
Summary: Trust Is Broken and Rules rewritten when Trust is broken and secrets released.
1. Breech Of Trust

9: Breech Of Dawn  
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 1: Breech Of Trust

Joan Williams sighed contentedly as she lay back in the plush deep chair that took pride of place in her small quarters. Her inboxes may not be empty, her work not entirely done but then she was a senior officer in the RSS, her work was never done, no, she was _off-duty. _

__And that was one hell of a good reason to relax, she got so little off duty time as it was, hell, they had even given her quarters within the main RSS building itself, so that she would always be handy if needed.

It made having friends around for a party _real _interesting. Luckily, most of her friends were serving or used to the peculiarities that came from friends in the service, and so she didn't have too much trouble.

Sighing, she reached across the chair, grabbing the remote to her 17'' Plasma screen TV, and flicked the TV on to BBC News24. Sipping, she smiled to herself, she loved that TV! It was amazing what you could buy if you rarely got off base to actually spend any money, it all soon built up.

The smile froze; the tea dropped unnoticed to the floor as she frantically dialled the volume up.

"Oh, bugger me!" she gasped, then dashed out of her room, racing through the endless corridors to the Admirals office, uncaring of the fact that all she wore was her loosely tied dressing gown and a pair of fluffy bear slippers.

Gasping for breath, she dived without knocking into a startled Admiral Thompson's office and grabbed the remote straight of the bemused Admirals hand, she dialled straight into BBC News 24.

The Admiral lost his bemused expression instantly, shifting first to stunned, then furious, finally settling on pure fury.

Reaching down, he picked up the internal base phone on his desk, and pressed the button marked 'RSS, Security Chief'

"Pick up BBC News 24, Now" he slammed the phone down, "**How the HELL did this happen? **"

"I don't know sir, I just don't know"

"Now as you can see, this unidentified memorial clearly lists several US warships by name however we are able to confirm that not only is each of these ships, Iwo Jima or Eisenhower has recently lost crewmen with the names listed, not only that but there is currently no known military service that uses English names and an RSS prefix for its vessels.

_The squadron's listed also do not exist, and yet as you can see from the video, all the Heads Of State from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council were present. _

_That clearly indicates that the names on this plaque have some vital importance, and yet nothing on it makes sense. _

_So far, no comment has been received from official sources regarding this monument, hidden away in the corners of RAF St Athans. _

_In further News, Sky News has received information to the effect that last years attack on RAF St Athan was carried out by an official agency of the United States Government. _

_At this time, it is highly likely that this is linked to President Ordover's decision to disband the NID and arrest all that agency's agents under Treason charges" _

"How in the _hells _ name did they get that tape?"

"That" Thompson replied grimly, is the three-billion pound question"

**  
**


	2. Traitors

9: Breech Of Dawn  
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 2: Traitors

__A weary, sleep deprived Thompson cursed as the message hit his inbox, General Hammond and his soon to be replacement, General Jacob Carter / Selmac were on their way, and they were not at all happy about something.

Perfect, just another thing to add to his list of reasons why today was not a good day. First, he had received news of a security breech _on the goddamn news! _ Then he had had to deal with a two hour phone call from the Prime Minister, asking quiet politely what kind of shop he was running down there and what he was going to do about it.

Followed by frantic calls from all his senior commanders. In turn.

Then the latest report from Enerina had hit his desk and _that _ even on a good day, would have been enough to make him scream. Twelve densely populated worlds destroyed, by _machines, computers! _ Even worse, these computers had not only vowed to destroy the entire human race, but they could appear human. Shades of Terminator anyone?

There was also the little matter of the source of their information being a human, with a Cylon also resident, ready to takeover, Goa'uld style at any time.

Perfect, just… Perfect.

And now he had to deal with something bad enough to drag Hammond away from his base just as he was counting casualties from the Gatecrasher operation.

"Sir" a quiet voice sounded over the intercom, "Generals Hammond and Carter are here"

"Send them in"

A grim faced Hammond strode in, straight away handing him a battered, bloody copy of an official RSS Memo, followed swiftly by an equally grim Carter.

Thompson frowned, "I don't remember the SGC being on the distribution list for this memo"

"It was found during a break out by SG-24 from one of Maktenos's prisons where they were held, awaiting interrogation.

Thompson blinked rapidly, "Could you please repeat that?"

"I'm afraid somebody in your organisation is passing information to Maktenos" Carter replied, his voice carefully level and controlled.

"Not only to Maktenos, but the press as well…" Thompson swore, violently.

"The Press?" Hammond asked, shocked and annoyed.

"The Memorial ceremony for the _Dauntless _ and the others lost in that scrap? Somebody leaked a copy of the video to the press" Angrily, Thompson rose from his desk and began striding about his office.

"How in the Sam-hells name did that happen?" Carter asked, disturbed and angry.

"We don't know, yet. But the timing is a little interesting isn't it? A breech to Maktenos and the press at the same time"

"You have any proof of a connection?" Hammond asked grimly.

"Just my gut-feeling, but we'll look into it, only ship and base commanders, and their seconds got to see that particular memo, that's about 25 people in total, all of whom have passed the most rigid security checks imaginable" Thompson noted grimly, he _really _didn't like the thought of one of his people spying for the Goa'uld.

Once again, the intercom bleeped, "Sir, check out BBC News 24…"

" _Again?!?" _ Growling, he grabbed the remote and flicked the volume back up.

Then cursed, fluently and liberally.

_"As you can see, this video sequence, captured by amateur astronomers last year clearly shows an unidentified ship in orbit over Earth, roughly geo-synchronous over Cardiff, the Capital of Wales. _

_Why this craft was there, and what the government has done about it is unknown, all that we know for certain is that the craft left, pretty fast a few hours later, and that this videotape has been verified by stills and tapes from at least 10 different sources. _

_So far, the Government has refused to comment" _

"Isn't that a _Prometheus?" _Carter asked, unamused.

"Yes" Hammond replied, a worried frown lining his face.

**  
**


	3. Russian Disaster

9: Breech Of Dawn  
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 3: Russian Disaster

In the Siberian Republic of Sakha within the Russian confederation was buried the newest of two secret facilities dedicated to the knowledge that aliens were real and they were _not _ friendly benefactors of humanity as many wished them to be.

This facility, located north of Yakutsk along the Lena River was the construction facility for the Russian _Prometheus, _built not only with American knowledge but also with designs forced from them.

And in this facility, a disaster was about to occur.

_"Free the aliens, free the aliens!" _

_"They come in piece, and you murder them? Murderers!" _

_"We must free the aliens" _

_"Let ET go!" _

_"Free the Aliens! Before the poisonous minds of the military turns them against us" _

__Captain Anatoliy gulped, frightened out of his wits by the crowd that gathered outside, screaming about aliens they didn't have. Well, not here anyway.

They were a maddened mob, a riot waiting to explode and all Anatoliy could see was more and more civilians streaming to join the crowd, their faces lined and angry.

And judging by the placards, they thought the Moskva was alien, it was not! It was a product of Mother Russia! Something to prove to the world that Russia was still powerful, still strong.

He knew if he tried to say that he would be shot for treachery, and the crowd would likely not believe it anyway.

So, Anatoliy watched the mob grow, becoming more agitated and prepared to die, defending his countries greatest work.

The crowd surged forward, as if on some unseen cue, charging the tall barbed wire fences, the concrete pillboxes, the front ranks decimated by machine guns and rifles.

But the mob surged forward, quickly covering the short distance to the first defenders. Armed now, the mob surged even farther ahead, first running into soldiers then scientists engineers and construction workers.

It didn't matter to the mob, the military had captured aliens, now then had to free them.

If only they could find the aliens…

Airman First Class Roberson got up that morning and just knew he was going to have a boring day, mainly because his boss, Colonel Frost had told him so the day before.

He was going to be monitoring the oldest piece of space junk the USAF still had control over, an aging fuel less spysat that was only used to train rooks in monitoring sat feeds. Or as punishment.

Roberson knew he was no rook, he got the idea going out with the colonels daughter might not have been such a bright idea after all…

"Wow, shit!" Roberson shouted as he leant backwards away from his desk as it flashed an alert, the momentary glimpse of a massive explosion repeating as the satellite went dead.

Across the room, exclamations were heard as one after another every satellite over Siberia died, their circuits fried.

"Roberson to Frost, could you please get down here and supervise a minute? We have a class A unusual occurrence associated with a major explosion north of Yakutsk , possible EMP wave" Roberson flicked the mic off, it seemed today wasn't going to be boring after all.

**  
**


	4. Evacuations

9: Breech Of Dawn  
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 4: Evacuations

Admiral Of The Fleet Thompson cursed as he packed the last of his papers into cardboard boxes, ready for shipment to _Thundersdawn, _ he glanced around the office that had been his home for some five years now and sighed angrily.

He hated this, hated that the entire RSS administration had to move out of St Athan, and by ring at that. The entire area had been compromised, too many reporters swarming the area, asking about the memorial, about the NID attack and if they stayed in the area, well someone would blab eventually and that would be that.

Either that, or the next reporter who breeched the fence might see too much, either way it was obvious, it was too dangerous for the RSS to operate from here for quite a while, possibly forever.

The command staff were heading to _Thundersdawn, _the admin staff to Manston and Conningsby, the trapped RSS craft were being covered up and heavy guard set.

Thompson frowned, severely annoyed, that included the prototype _Striker. _ They had finally got the attack fighter in an airworthy state, ready for testing and what happens?

The entire _Striker _project was on hold because of this breech, someone was going to pay.

It didn't help he supposed, that a bunch of very interesting photos had reached the press, all of _Airheads _and _Lancers. _ This was the problem with trying to do anything in secret in Britain, especially if it involved aircraft. Britain was too heavily populated, there were no areas you could set a classified facility up that didn't have a local population and all the unpopulated areas were generally unsuitable, either they weren't flat enough, they were protected for some reason…

Thompson grabbed the now-full box and strode angrily from the room in the direction of the rings, well, he didn't have to like it, but as always, he would have to do his best with the hand he was dealt with.

Commodore Peters wasn't happy about the situation either, but for a whole different reason.

Her Boss would be at her station, constantly. It was any commander's worst nightmare, the brass being in a position to constantly look over their shoulders and criticise everything, and she would have to put up with that, indefinitely.

Real fun, Peters thought wryly as she reached across her desk for the next report.

"Come in" she shouted, as a sharp knock sounded at the door.

"Cap, a ship just left hyper, IFF says RSS04," a breathless excited voice told her as her 'Batman', Ensign Scot entered.

Peters eyes turned to icy glares as she stared at the young woman, "Don't even joke about that"

"Sensor data is a little sketchy, if it's a _Dauntless II, _then it's had heavy battle damage"

Peters felt her eyes widen, "You're not joking are you?"

"Like _hell _ I would Cap, not about this"

Peters dived out of the room, sprinting to the bridge, _Devonshire _home at last? She had been declared MIA almost five months ago, and declared Missing, presumed destroyed last month, if she was back…

**  
**


	5. Ground Zero

9: Breech Of Dawn  
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 5: Ground Zero

It was bad, Thompson thought, that he didn't get into work nowadays and wonder if he had a press incident to deal with, he instead walked into the office and asked what had been broken overnight to the press.

It had been sending Intel, Security and Internal Affairs into collective fits. Now it was sending them into fits of rage, they had some evidence that suggested a high ranker from one of their branches was responsible for the breeches and was indeed subtly inhibiting the investigation.

Needless to say, the investigators were _not _ amused.

Also needless to say, morale in those branches was approaching a new all time low. They were under investigation; one of their own was a traitor. They were not happy.

A grim faced Williams, this early in the morning he hadn't had enough caffeine to be able to tell which, greeted him outside the heavy iron airlock to his temporary office on _Thundersdawn _station.

"Sir, we have a _real _problem"

Thompson groaned, "How bad?"

"According to the Sun, we are at a defacto state of war with America"

__Thompson blinked, inserted his fingers in his ears to clear them, and asked in an overly amused, you cannot be serious voice, "Could you repeat that, only it sounded like you said…"

"We are at a Defacto state of war with America"

"That's what it sounded like you said" Thompson paused, and let rip, using words that would make the most hardened mustang blush.

Joan Williams was a hardened officer and she had come up from the 'ranks', making her a mustang but she still blushed, she _had _ tried that, though she really didn't want the Admiral to know about that incident. But the rest was way in the realm of physically impossible, and in a few cases, highly illegal.

"Right" Thompson asked, highly annoyed ten minutes later, "How in the hell did they construe that?"

"Well, I'll give you three guesses but you are only going to need one"

"NID and St Athan" Thompson flatly replied.

"Yes, and here's a thought for you, we know the NID have been manipulated by the Goa'uld before"

Thompson nodded slowly, the thought sounding right to his experienced mind "Your thinking the information that suggested Maktenos was involved was accurate, but intended to mislead"

"If we are looking for snake agents, we might not notice the signs of NID activity, and it diverts resources from the effort to round up the few surviving NID cells" Joan continued, pulling up her PDA and the contact details buried within.

"There were minor indications that several NID cells were receiving manipulated orders in the database Intel grabbed out of their asteroid base…" Thompson mused, "pass it on to Ryan, and see if he can look into it"

"Already on it sir" Joan said, smiling at her boss fondly as she looked up from her PDA.

"What's the PM say about this war business?"

"The official statement is that the NID were taken down because of the attack, and that reparations and apologies were made, POTUS is backing this up all the way, they are both frantically trying to defuse the situation but their has been riots in London and Glasgow already, as well as six American cities.

Its bad boss, it really is.

Though there is one saving grace, public opinion is very antiwar in both countries; the general opinion seems to be War with our friends? No way. It's anti-NID all the way"

Thompson relaxed slightly, "Good, then there will be no push towards a war that would be very awkward for us and very damaging to our war effort against the Goa'uld"

Joan snorted, "The troops would refuse to fight anyway, on _both _ sides. Too much cross training, exchange programs and the like, they see each other as friends and military types have a real problem with killing friends"

"Right" Thompson nodded, "any report from Taskforce 3?"

"We received partial pre-combat log dumps but they cut off abruptly"

Thompson nodded, his mind swiftly racing through the little data he had before coming to a simple answer, insufficient information to come to a conclusion.

"Any other business?"

"Yes, the latest construction report just arrived…"

**  
**


	6. Jammy Dodgers and Code Breakers

9: Breech Of Dawn  
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 6: Jammy Dodgers and Code-breakers

MTB _Griffin _ (Sol PDF Variant)

Sub-Lieutenant Tyler glanced proudly over the bridge of his new command, they had launched just four days ago and now after extensive acceptance trials they were finally on the roster.

They were now an official component of the Sol system Planetary Defence Forces, joining the MTB _Chimera _ and two _Lancer Solar _ squadrons, 177 'Cobra's', 194 'Reavers' as Earths sole permanent line of defence.

Tyler didn't count _Thundersdawn, _she was a sitting duck, unable to move, if a serious attack came she could be bypassed, and disposed of at leisure.

A noise made Tyler turn to his left in time to see his systems operator, CPO Moore slam upwards in his seat, shook written across his face.

" _Christ! _ We just crossed a com-laser line"

"What?!?" Tyler shouted startled, "we don't have any sats or ships in this area to com-laser with"

Moore nodded, taping furiously at his console. The readouts refused to change.

"Its pretty definite sir, com-laser trace"

Tyler began frantically barking out orders, consternation running through his mind, whoever was using the com-laser wasn't authorised, or he would know about it. That meant trouble.

"All stop relative! Sensors to maximum sensitivity! Turn us 180 on the _spot _ please helm, thrusters only, take us back dead on our old course and slowly, we don't want to pass right over the blighter"

"Aye cap" Petty Officer White replied, frantically working his console, desperately trying not to get things wrong on his first day on helm.

It was fifteen minutes before they caught the com-laser again, recording the final 30 seconds before the laser shut down, its message sent.

But it was enough; they had followed the laser line carefully and found the sending satellite.

It was Goa'uld.

And triangulation placed the receiver as being in Earth orbit.

RSS _Thundersdawn_

"Right" Peters said, charging into Loading Bay 4, a bay created and reserved for use with anything potentially dangerous to the station, "What do we have here?"

"A Goa'uld satellite, no markings to indicate the Goa'uld it was manufactured for, but the message buffer was still intact, Intel are on that now, it appears that because of the distance the beam was designed to travel, they were not only setting it up to transmit real slow, which is why _Griffin _was able to find the beam again, but also they expected frequent repeat signals"

"Hence a buffered signal" Peters nodded, "Good work Mr Schwartz"

"Yes Ma'am"

"Mr" Peters lips curled up "'Smith', any luck with the decode"

The unremarkable looking individual shrugged, "Not much as yet, but it reads like an attack warning, like someone is telling their agents to hide out for a while because they are coming, that's not definite though, we're working on it"

Peters eyebrows disappeared into her hairline, "An _attack _warning? I think you had best hurry"

"Indeed Ma'am" Smith replied, a cold smile hiding behind his dark, unforgiving eyes.

Deep beneath St Athan, far below the prying eyes of the reporters, the protestors and the alien nuts above, full eleven levels below the ground a large number of mainframes rested. The RSS Central Computer Repository was home to 24 top of the range servers and 6 Cray-12 class supercomputers making it the most powerful computer centre in existence, even if its existence was denied.

In here, computers whirred and clicked, LCD monitors tracking CPU load outs and available storage space as new commands were networked down from the workstations above.

The whirring grew louder as the Crays switched on, running diagnostics as they prepped for the task they had just been ordered to complete, fans speeding up to accommodate the extra heat load.

With a distinct _click, _the Crays sped into gear, downloading a small chunk of data from the servers, chewing the corrupt and encrypted file over, processing it to a fair-thee-well.

15 minutes later, they spat out their results, and far above them, an alarm sounded in the quiet, still corridors of RSS Command, St Athan.


	7. Broken Breeches

9: Breech Of Dawn  
by Chaoseternus

Computerroom: you wanted updates...... 

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 7: Broken Breeches

It was an amused and smiling Joan that strode through the heavy airlock into the Admirals office aboard _Thundersdawn, _a crumpled copy of the weeks TV Times in her hand.

Quickly striding up to the desk, she dropped the open paper in front of Thompson, on top of his other paperwork. Thompson raised a swift eyebrow and glanced annoyed at Joan.

"I'm assuming there is some reason why you have brought the TV paper to me, remembering I don't exactly get much of a chance to watch any"

"Check out the synopsis for the next Wormhole Extreme episode" Joan gasped out, laughter glinting in her eyes.

Eyebrows raised, Thompson looked down at the section in question, reading rapidly. An amused, sardonic grin then split his face as he reached across and handed the latest copy of the Sun newspaper to Joan, folded to the 4 th page.

Joan took one look, and cracked up laughing, "Oh, there are going to be a _lot _of red faces there"

Thompson grinned wryly, "Would have been nice of the SGC to warn us first"

**The Sun, June 16 2007 **

"Rumours abound today that under the veil of secrecy, the government has creation of a military spaceforce, believed to be called the Royal Space Service, this addition to our countries military has only one agenda, control of the solar system…"

**TV Times **

_Wormhole Extreme _Airing 6pm Wednesday

In response to _Telling All _(S3 E5), the British set up their own program, called the _Royal Space Service _ to defend the Solar System…

Thompson chuckled, "That's going to look like a page 4 blunder, not a brilliant example of journalism"

Joan smiled evilly, "Can't wait for the retraction, even though its true"

A knock sounded at the airlock, and a breathless, harried Commodore Peters entered, "Sir, we have one hell of a problem on our hands"

The lights in the room flickered, shifting to yellow as a voice began blaring over the stations PA system, _"All hands set condition Two, all warships load Hotshots and rig to launch. All hands stand by for anticipated Goa'uld attack, this is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill" _

Peters nodded at Thompson's look, "all our alert messages have still been going to St Athan, we wouldn't even know if the cleaner hadn't noticed the alert messages and raised the alarm.

The Cray's finished chewing over the com-laser burst _Griffin _picked up, it was a warning from Maktenos to his agents that he was on his way to attack and that they should make themselves scarce, just in case"

"Christ! A third of the fleet is chasing after the colonials, half our heavies are stuck at Alpha Centauri and _now _we have an attack to deal with?"

Peters nodded, "It's a little to cute, somebody ratted us out probably"

"When did the message say Maktenos was due to arrive?"

Peters glanced down at her watch as the lights flickered once more, shifting to red.

_"Set condition 1 throughout the station, all hands stand by to engage, this is not a drill. 2 nd SFW and Cobra Squadrons launch when ready" _

"Answers that question" Thompson said worriedly to Peters rapidly retreating back.

"Report!" Peters barked as she strode rapidly into the buzzing command centre.

"Commodore, we're reading 10 _Ha'taks _gathering at the edge of the sol system, no indication of their owner yet, _Cobra _squadron is launching and _Reaver _is inbound from Manston, they will be joined by the 1 st and 2 nd StarFighter Wings, 3 rd is on alert at Alpha, 4 th and 5 th are not tagged as combat ready and a forming a last ditch line in Earth orbit.

_Persephone _is on shore power and has been opened ready for the next 'fixed' drive to be installed, but _Independence, Gettysburg _and _Eisenhower _are reporting ready to engage" Ensign Scot fixed Peters with a direct look, "Only _Devonshire _is in system of the _Dauntless _class and she is in slip 5, the rest are on-mission"

"Shit, 3 cruisers and four fighter wings against ten _Ha'taks? _" Peters shook herself, trying unsuccessfully to hide her fear, "Okay, PrePlan 12-B, we'll hold the line here…"

" _New contacts, new contacts! Multiple Ha'taks dropping out of hyper… flight profile suggests Anubis upgrades installed" _

Peters shock her head in disgust as the shouted words from the sensor board; they had had an idea an attack by Maktenos was coming for a while, but for Anubis to show up too?

They were screwed, she thought privately to herself.

" _The new group is inbound, heading directly for… wait one" _

__The whole bridge stood silent, still paused as they waited for the next words, words that would probably define their fate.

" _Second group shifting course… they are moving to engage group one" _

__A relieved sigh filled the room, and Peters grinned maliciously, "How many in the second group?"

" _7 Ha'tak ma'am" _

__"About even then, let them kill each other for now, have the fighters form on the prommies, their might be some interesting scraps, maybe a _Ha'tak _or two if we move at the right time"

"Yes _ma'am" _came the amused, respectful reply as Peters contemplated their luck.

The one time Maktenos sends a serious attack, so does Anubis, _that, _to put it mildly, was interesting timing. If ever of them suspected the other was there, they would have sent more and larger ships, but they didn't. That suggested coincidence, but she didn't believe in coincidences, not on this scale. She promised herself to reread the briefing on the Powers That Be when she had the time.


	8. Salvage and Agents

9: Breech Of Dawn  
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 8: Salvage and Agents

The Tau'ri fleet watched gloating as the Goa'uld ships attacked each other, the ships of Maktenos showing greater coordination and were constantly regrouping, launching group assaults on single Anubis vessels, quickly overwhelming them, battering them into oblivion.

The ships of Anubis were more powerful, each one individually capable of taking on one of Maktenos's _Ha'taks _ with power to spare, but were less coordinated.

It was stalemate. First, an Anubis _Ha'tak _was destroyed, followed rapidly by another. Then two Maktenos vessels fell almost simultaneously, their shields depleted by the more power weapons of the Anubis vessels they were attacking, followed by a third.

The regrouping Maktenos ships repulsed a destroyed an attacking Anubis vessel before charging another, destroying that too only to place themselves right in the middle of the three surviving Anubis _Ha'tak, _the murderous crossfire killing four of Maktenos's warships in quick succession before they were able to extricate themselves.

Now there were just six surviving _Ha'taks, _three Anubis, 3 Maktenos, wearily watching each other from a distance, their crews frantically racing though repairs as they prepared for the final kill.

The Tau'ri fleet maintained its position, content to let Jaffa kill Jaffa, and hoping no Free Jaffa agents were aboard the embattled warships.

Almost simultaneously, the two Goa'uld fleets charged forward, their weapons spitting death as the Maktenos vessels englobed an Anubis _Ha'tak, _destroying it utterly, only to lose two of their number to return fire from the now dying Anubis warship and its comrades.

Sensing defeat, the last Maktenos vessel attempted to flee as the Tau'ri fleet _charged, _everyweapon in their armoury, gauss rifles and torpedoes from the three cruisers, wave after wave of torpedoes from the fighter firing upon a sole Anubis _Ha'tak. _

It died, its shields obliterated, no piece larger than a fridge surviving its utter destruction.

Shocked and shaken, the final Anubis _Ha'tak _ turned to face the Tau'ri only to be crippled as _F-302's _ micro-jumped inside its shield perimeter, their guns surgically targeting engines, shields and weapons, leaving the ship largely intact whilst the _Lancers _ and _Prometheus _ class cruisers chased after the sole surviving Maktenos warship.

The vessel skewed awkwardly in its course, as if temporarily out of control, then stopped, its shields dropping, its weapons powering down, the Jaffa's faith in their master broken by their utter, surprising defeat.

Behind them, wave after wave of _Paladins _ appeared, each one loaded with assault troops as they moved forward, force docking with the two surviving _Ha'taks, _their crews rapidly overcoming and destroyed any resistance.

Once again, Earth was safe.

RSS _ Thundersdawn, _2 days later

Joan Williams strode into Thompson's office triumphantly, a large sheaf of printouts clutched in her hand.

"We've got a possible ID on a number of the NID agents"

Thompson looked up startled from his conversation with Taskforce Lucifer Commander, Sir John Patrick Ryan,

"Are you serious?"

"Just cross-referenced the list of suspects with the list of people who went AWOL right before the attack, and come up with some interesting matches" Joan smiled as she handed the first printout to Thompson, "Also got a B-list, people who went AWOL as soon as word of the attack got out but aren't candidates for first time combat blues"

Ryan raised an eyebrow, "First time combat blues?"

Thompson nodded, suddenly getting what Joan was hiding for, "First time combat blues is a polite way of putting it, we can screen all we want but no system is perfect and you will always get one or two who, when facing real combat for the first time, desert, scared out of their wits.

We chase after them a lot more vigorously than the RAF, Navy or Army would of course, due to security issues, but if a deserter is _not _ a first timer, it raises questions, for example if"

Joan interrupted him at this point "Commander Barker, 2IC _Coalmine _was to desert…"

Thompson shot her a startled, disturbed look, " _Barker? _ I thought he was on compassionate leave"

Joan shook her head, "He was an orphan and knows practically no-one outside the military, certainly no one closely enough to request compassionate leave for"

Ryan nodded, "Point taken, I'll need copies of the files of every name on those lists"

"I'll see to it you get them" Joan promised.

Ryan nodded, "Thank you for your time" and swiftly left the room, mentally shifting his strategy to incorporate the new information.

"How much salvage?" Thompson asked as soon as the door was closed again.

"Well" Joan said, "We have a fully operational Maktenos _Ha'tak _ plus an Anubis _Ha'tak _ which Intel and science in drooling over despite the damage it received, there are also two hulls who internal substructure is trashed but the superstructure, the backbone of the craft is undamaged, so they can probably be rebuilt and brought into service, other than that it is just scattered bits and pieces"

Thompson smiled, "An Anubis _Ha'tak? _ Better have accounting warned we may have a nice load of upgrades to push through soon"

"Amen to that, sir


	9. Rejoining the Fleet

9: Breech Of Dawn  
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 9: Rejoining The Fleet

_Persephone _ slid swiftly out of the _Thundersdawn _dry dock, the very quick easy manner by which she manoeuvred proving the crews practise as they brought the ship rapidly out of the bay for the tenth time since their hyperdrive failure.

Once again, a new 'fix' was in place, but unlike previous times, the crew were hopeful, they had been told what Technical Division felt the problem was, and its extremely simple fix and this time they had understood the explanation, understood the fix, and groaned over the very simpleness of it a thousand times.

Right now, they had a thousand and one vibration sensors packed all around the effected safety device, buried in a mass of padding, of shock and vibration absorbent material.

This time, they anticipated no problems.

Swiftly collecting their escort, the 1 st SFW they moved to outside the orbit of Jupiter and began an exhaustive series of tests and checks in preparation for their first test flight into hyper with this latest fix.

Then they jumped.

_Ravenbright _Station, Alpha Centauri.

"Unscheduled contacts dropping out of hyper!"

O'Neill snapped awake with a start as the words sounded throughout the control centre, god he hated bridge shifts, nothing to do and boring as hell, a perfect example of the old 98% boredom, 2% sheer terror adage.

"Any IFF?"

"Checking… _Persephone, Prometheus _class with a drive testbed tag to the IFF code and 1 st SFW"

O'Neill smiled, "It looks like they fixed their drives at last, send them our congratulations"

"Aye… _fuck me!" _ the comm. Officer of the watch, an Ensign by the name of White shouted, his hand slamming down on the alert siren causing the lights to flicker to red and alarms to blare throughout the finished portions of the station and through every suit comm., _"multiple contacts, Asgard, RSS and unidentified emerging from hyper" _

__Ensign White flushed suddenly, "must be the refuges starting to arrive, sorry sir"

O'Neill sent White a direct look, "You saw a fleet unexpectedly arriving and you hit the panic button without hesitation, that in my book gets you a commendation, I would much rather have the occasional false alarm then get creamed because we were debating whether it was an attack force or not"

White flushed again, "Yes sir, sorry sir, shall I hail them sir?"

O'Neill cracked a smile, "I rather suspect we have a closet trekkie here, yes 'hail' them"

"Sir, should I also put the crew on Alpha Secundus on full alert?"

O'Neill nodded approvingly, "Yes please, and take us to condition 2 general, medical to stand to condition 1 and rig for refugees"

"Sir, _Persephone _just jumped out on a course for the Sol System"

O'Neill nodded, "Signal the rest of the ships to initiate plane 'Covenant-12"

In a surge of motion, the Alpha PDF forces, the MTB's _Alpha Prime, Alpha II, Lancer 1-A _squadrons _Defenders, Foxes _ as well as the _Prometheus _class Cruisers trapped in the Alpha Centauri system, the _Prometheus _herself, and _Yorktown _ all broke from their patrols or docks and headed to the arriving refugees, gathering over the arriving vessels in a protective umbrella of warcraft as they waited for the rest to be delivered into relative safety.

Another race of humans was being brought to Alpha Centauri for safety and like their cousins, the Tollan before them they would be protected and guarded.

With all the force the Tau'ri could bring to bear.


	10. Counter Attack

9: Breech Of Dawn  
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 10: Counter Attack

Thompson woke bright and early, eagerly and swiftly dressing and preparing for the day ahead.

Today, he wanted to be early. Today, he wanted to catch the morning news as soon as it was relayed up to _Thundersdawn _ through an illegal tap on the civilian Television satellites.

They may have been breeched, they may have had a lot of their laundry aired, they may have been forced out of their primary command facility by successive damaging reports but today their counterattack should start to become visible.

The reporters who had so eagerly reacted to the information they had been handed on a platter so nicely marked 'suckers!' would find their sources suddenly disappearing, arrested and jailed off world for treason and conspiring with the enemy.

And worse, they would find their reputations in jeopardy.

A slight grin in his eyes, Thompson arrived at his office, smiling as he found Joan Williams waiting for him, her manner nervous.

They may not have planned this counter attack, but they two had Okayed it. If it failed, it would be their heads on the block.

"So" Joan asked, all too innocent and nonchalant, "any ideas about what 'Murielle' was able to find and use?"

Thompson chuckled, not fooled for an instant, "Like me, you will just have to watch and find out"

Thompson pretended not to hear the muttered 'damn' from his subordinate.

Fiddling with the remote, Thompson brought the TFT monitor on, switching rapidly through the news channels, watching anxiously for any mention of 'Murielle's' promised news.

Finally, he found it.

**Sky News 24 **

_"…and in other news, scandal rocks the BBC today as several reporters are suspended pending investigation of charges that they conspired to fake reports and create false evidence in several investigations. _

_This follows an official visit by a committee of reporters including several from Sky News to RAF St Athan and several other supposed 'RSS' facilities in which the reporters were allowed to inspect all areas, including those normally restricted to search fro evidence of a British spaceforce. _

_No such evidence was found" _

__Joan chuckled, and then broke down laughing, "Oh that's rich! I knew she wanted to talk to Thor about something but _that _ is rich"

Wiping her eyes, she turned to the Admiral and explained, "What's the betting we get a message from Thor asking if we have finished with the holoprojectors yet?"

Thompson's widened in shock and truth be told, a little awe, "She didn't?"

He shook his head, "She probably did, okay that's half the reporters who have been bugging us tarnished, their reputations pretty much gone, what about the guys who got the _Prometheus _pictures?"

Joan shook her head, "You didn't hear?"

Thompson's eyebrows rose, "hear what?"

"The NID screwed up on the pics, one of the astronomers who was supposed to have taken the pictures was on telly standing next to the President right when he was supposed to be taking the pictures, a reporter from the American NBC figured it out before we did and started investigating.

They have discredited at least three of the photos so far, several we know _are _ genuine but with doubt being cast, no one but the cranks are going to believe it anymore" Joan smiled, "So long as we don't get anymore breeches, we're clear"

"Unfortunately" Thompson said, bringing the happy mood to a shuddering halt "we haven't contained the breech yet, we have another lot of agents, both NID and Goa'uld to question but we know there are more, both in the RSS and the SGC, we could still be blown wide open"

Joan shrugged, "Gotta happen soon, the amount of money and personnel that is being diverted is starting to become a little obvious even with help from Canada and Australia, the selling of excess materials we've mined, not Naquadah of course, and money from several projects such as the _Fade Out Paladin _variants and several advanced patents we've licensed.

You've read the report as well as I have, what do they give us, four years maximum?"

Thompson nodded, "four years max, three years most likely then we're blown and everybody will know"

"And then, we'll all be living in interesting times"


	11. Strikers and Prisoners

9: Breech Of Dawn  
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 11: Strikers and Prisoners

"You have an utter _maniac _ working for you, you do know that don't you?"

General Carter blinked, when he was called onto the _Thundersdawn _ line, he wasn't expecting the first words to be that, maybe some vital piece of information, or news of an impending attack.

Not to be told what he already knew.

"Which one was it this time?"

A frustrated sigh came over the radiophone, "Captain Dodge"

Carter Blinked, Mr I've been on my best behaviour since I arrived at _Thundersdawn _Dodge? "I was under the impression Dodge had been behaving himself?" he asked slowly.

"He _was" _ Peters said making Carter grin and Selmac chuckle in anticipation as they could hear the wry grin in her tone, it sounded like their liaison to the RSS station had come up with a dozy.

"What did he do?"

"Oh just hijacked a C-4 Galaxy, wrestled the _Striker _ prototype into it without no-one noticing, and then launched the damn thing from the back off the Galaxy when it hit cloud cover, its now docked here, thanks for asking by the way"

"He _what?" _ Carter asked, laughing.

" _How _ he got Masters to go along with it I don't know, crazy fools that thing hasn't even been flight tested and they pull a risky manoeuvre like _that" _

Peters rolled her eyes at the laughter coming down the line, it seemed she would get no sympathy there.

Best phone Sarah. And Joan, oh and Thompson, O'Neill too should hear about this…

Just one thick concrete wall away from General Carter/ Selmac a more sober event was occurring.

In bright orange prison uniforms and with armed Marines surrounding them, a large group of people was being led into the gateroom, most shocked as they saw the device they had risked so much for finally in front of them.

Several broke down, cried, the enormity of their defeat evident before. Some took it stoically, unwilling to give the Marines and the SGC personnel any satisfaction, any sign of their defeat.

Several tried to attack, to break free; they were quickly clubbed back, forced back into line brutally by guards who had no love for these traitors.

The gate finished dialling and glaring back at the overly impassive masks of the guards, the NID operatives fled through the gate, their destination, a fertile green world, with no DHD and a sabotaged gate, no way to dial out manually or automatically.

They were exiles, unable to return and unwanted home.

And no one at the SGC had any sympathy.


	12. Regaining Control

9: Breech Of Dawn  
by Chaoseternus

Trust is broken and the rules rewritten when traitors are revealed and secrets released.

Chapter 12: Regaining Control

Thompson smiled victoriously as he dragged the trolley of boxes back into _his _office.

Not the temporary one back on _Thundersdawn, _ but his office at GC St Athan.

Gods, it was good to be back.

No more nosy reporters, the troublesome ones having either been discredited totally, told to shut up by now disbelieving editors or in a couple of cases, rubbing their hands with glee as they joined up.

Thompson smirked; it was one of his more brilliant ideas.

Everything they did had to be recorded, noted for prosperity so why not have some trained observers around to do it? For that matter, why shouldn't Alpha Centauri have its own news service? Or why couldn't the RSS get its own version of the Armed Forces News Network?

Selection had been careful of course, but it was surprising how many reporters got _very _ cooperative if promised a home on another planet.

Fed up of the pollution on Earth, wishing it was greener for your children? Well, we have a proposition for you…

Stuck at the bottom of the ladder because of one small mistake that the news business will never forget? We have a chance for you to make yourself a name…

Fed up with protective custody or bodyguards just because somebody _really _ didn't like your reports? Well, we know of a place they will never be able to reach you…

It all added up, now they had reporters from the three member nations of the RSS joining up, founding a Alpha Prime News Network, a Tau'ri Alliance News Network for frontline reports and behind the scenes analysis.

It had actually managed to shut up the 'bleeding hearts' on the oversight committee, an event of epic proportions, independent observers covering the RSS, it was perfect, troublesome in some ways, they would have to be watched permanently just to insure they didn't try an unauthorised contact with Earth, but he doubted they would try.

When this story broke, they would be on sight and experienced with the Tau'ri forces, an un-estimateable advantage.

For the most part, the conspiracy nuts and theorists had disappeared from the area too, either correctly claiming a cover up or fleeing, afraid of having been caught out by such a blatant attempt to capture them, to silence them, they 'knew' after all.

Everything was back to normal, almost.

RSS St Athan was compromised still, this facility would now be under permanent watch by civilians, be they 'anoraks', alien nuts, conspiracy theorists or disgruntled, disbelieving press.

Operations here would have to be carefully controlled, but not stopped, no. It served their needs for a slow bleed of information to reach the public, for evidence to slowly build up, it would help prepare the public for the inevitable disclosure.

That would be an ugly day, anything that eased the blow, well that was a good thing in his eyes.

For whilst he knew it had to come, Thompson was afraid of the day of disclosure. He knew human nature, he knew chaos would follow, he knew people would most likely die as a result in riots and hate attacks, and he didn't like the thought at all.

Sighing slightly, he sat down at his desk, home at last.


End file.
